Revolutionary Romance Arco Chamber Soloists Spohr & Mozart
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
ROMANTIC & CLASSICAL MUSIC HISTORICAL INSIGHT NEW PERSPECTIVES BLUE MOUNTAINS YABBA YABBA RESIDENCE SATURDAY 16 SEPTEMBER 2017 | 4.00PM “WHAT A GREAT TIME TO BE A HIPSTER ... THERE’S AN INFECTIOUS ENERGY AND SYDNEY A SENSE OF ENTHUSIASM THAT TURNS CITY RECITAL HALL AN ARCO CONCERT INTO AN EVENT.” SUNDAY 17 SEPTEMBER 2017 | 2.30PM LIMELIGHT MAGAZINE MELBOURNE MELBOURNE RECITAL CENTRE FRIDAY 22 SEPTEMBER 2017 | 7.30PM ADELAIDE HILLS UKARIA CULTURAL CENTRE SUNDAY 24 SEPTEMBER 2017 | 3.00PM ARCO.ORG.AU REVOLUTIONARY GOVERNMENT PARTNERS MEDIA PARTNERS ROMANCE SPOHR & MOZART PRODUCTION PARTNERS VENUE PARTNER REVOLUTIONARY ROMANCE ARCO CHAMBER SOLOISTS SPOHR & MOZART BASSET CLARINET Nicole van Bruggen (Noosa) ARCO CHAMBER SOLOISTS Agnès Guéroult, Paris, 2006 NICOLE VAN BRUGGEN BASSET CLARINET SOLOIST VIOLIN Rachael Beesley (Melbourne) violin: Franz Geissenhof, Vienna, 1811 bow: John Dodd, London, c.1780 Louis Spohr (1784-1859) String Sextet in C major Op.140 (1848) Anna McMichael (Sydney) - Allegro Moderato violin: Camilli Cammilus, Mantua, Italy, 1742 bow: Basil de Visser, Amsterdam Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791) Clarinet Quintet in A major K.581 (1789) VIOLA - Allegro Simon Oswell 1 (Melbourne) - Larghetto viola: Giovanni Battista Guadagnini, Piacenza, Italy, 1791 - Menuetto - Trio I - Trio II bow: Louis Simon Pajeot (11), Paris, 1830 - Allegretto con variazioni Jane Rogers (Rugby, UK) INTERVAL viola: Jan Pawlikowski, Krakow, 2008, after Guarneri bow: Brian Tunnicliffe, London, 1985, after John Dodd Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Grande Sestetto Concertante in E flat major K.364 (1779) VIOLONCELLO - Allegro maestoso - Andante Mime Yamahiro-Brinkmann (Stockholm) - Presto cello: Anonymous, Milan, c.1750 bow: Luis Emilio Rodriguez, The Hague, 2000 Natasha Kraemer (Yarra Valley) cello: John Barratt, London, 1743 bow: Roger Doe, Cranbrook, Kent This concert will last approximately one hour and thirty minutes, 1 appears by arrangement with Melbourne Conservatorium of Music including a twenty minute interval. Pitch A=430Hz 1 2 LOUIS SPOHR (1784-1859) PROGRAM NOTES ALLEGRO MODERATO FROM STRING SEXTET IN C MAJOR OP.140 (1848) The ARCO Chamber Soloists welcome you to the world of chamber music 1848 saw a huge wave of revolutions across Europe, from the Age of Revolution. The Industrial Revolution of the early 19th led by a loose alliance of working and middle class century changed the way of life for millions of people, and stimulated workers, people who desired better working conditions, the reformists, and the middle class to rise up and challenge long-entrenched formation of independent national states and an end world-views. The American, French, and German Revolutions changed the to feudalism. Spohr was sympathetic to these causes, very fabric of society in previously unimaginable ways. In light of the upheaval and left a note in the margin of the original score of throughout the civilised world, it is little wonder that small, comforting and the String Sextet in C Major, saying that it was written secure performance settings were so prized. Works for small ensembles from ‘at the time of the glorious people’s revolution...and this time were often intended for performance with family and friends, and reawakening of Germany.’ were designed to provide both general enjoyment and satisfaction to musical connoisseurs. Public performances of small-scale works were also valued by In his lifetime, Spohr was esteemed as a violinist and audiences, versed as they were in the challenges of private chamber musicking. composer, and highly sought-after as a teacher. His symphonies and operas, although rarely heard today, were popular and significant works throughout the 19th century. However, it is his works for violin, Spohr: Self portrait including chamber works, which represent his true passion. He wrote more violin concertos than any other composer in the first half of the 19th century, as well as 36 string quartets and an assortment of other chamber works, including one of his greatest compositions, the sublime String Sextet in C Major Op.140. Spohr described the violin as an instrument able to express the deepest and most tender emotions, and suited to singing like a human voice. The Allegro Joseph Haydn Moderato from the String Sextet in C Major has an undeniably singing style, playing quartets and gives some indication of what Spohr meant when he described the violin bow as the ‘soul of playing’. He even devised exercises for practising the ‘slow drawing’ of the bow, ideal for achieving changes of dynamic throughout long Today we showcase our world-class performers on period instruments, and notes. Tantalisingly, Spohr also wrote that playing music as it appeared on a explore the variety of timbre and expression offered by violins, violas and cellos score was merely achieving a ‘correct’ style, while achieving a ‘fine’ style required strung with gut, and the unusual basset clarinet. The works we have chosen a sense of where to apply unwritten ornaments such as portamento, vibrato, are true musical gems of the chamber music repertoire. These compositions and tempo modification (rubato). It is comments such as these which have led were born into a time of turmoil, and reflect the spirit of innovation which was today’s performers to ask what he might have meant, and to experiment with awakened among composers and the population in general. the information available to us from treatises, scores, letters, and by playing on historic instruments and bows with period setups. 3 4 WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART (1756-1791) WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART CLARINET QUINTET IN A MAJOR K.581 (1789) GRANDE SESTETTO CONCERTANTE IN E FLAT MAJOR K.364 (1779) Mozart wrote the Clarinet Quintet for a close This work is better known in its original form, the Sinfonia Concertante friend, the virtuoso clarinettist Anton Stadler. It K.364, composed in 1779. The original version is scored for solo violin, was Stadler’s playing that caused Mozart to fall in solo viola, two oboes, two horns, and strings, including a divided viola love with the sound of the clarinet, inspiring him section. The Sinfonia Concertante represents a genre which long resisted to compose the Clarinet Quintet, the Clarinet definition and categorisation, but which is best described as a merging of Concerto, and the Kegelstatt Trio. On 22 concerto and symphony. It showcases a group of instruments similar to a December 1789, Stadler performed the premiere Concerto Grosso, but does not tend to pit orchestra against soloists in true of the Clarinet Quintet in the Burgtheater in concerto style, favouring instead a minimal accompaniment on the part of Vienna with Mozart himself on viola. the orchestra. It was popular in Paris during the 1770s, and it is likely that Mozart was inspired to try his hand at it after hearing or seeing examples Mozart’s compositions for Stadler were intended during his European tour. The Sinfonia Concertante K.364 is without doubt for performance on a new kind of instrument: Mozart’s most masterful work in this style. the basset clarinet. This clarinet possessed an extended range and was capable of a wide The arrangement you will hear today was published in an uncredited Mozart: Oil painting by variety of timbres. Unfortunately, Stadler lost edition in 1808 by Sigmund Anton Steiner. Although this arrangement Barbara Kraft (1764 - 1825) both the instrument and the original scores retains the relaxed, happy mood typical of the Sinfonia Concertante for the Clarinet Concerto and Quintet, much to Mozart’s wife Constanze’s genre, the parts are divided equally among the six players, creating disgust (she exclaimed that he probably pawned them). Today you will hear a a true chamber work rather than the original format of soloists with copy of the original instrument, masterfully reconstructed from nothing more accompaniment. Although we do not know who the arranger was, this than descriptions and a picture on a concert advertisement, discovered by a type of adaptation was common, fuelled by the insatiable appetite of sharp-eyed musicologist in 1992. The result is extraordinary, and informs our amateur players for music, and in particular music by famous composers. understanding of Mozart’s compositions immensely. Mozart’s name as a composer had been fastidiously groomed since his death by his wife Constanze Mozart, creating an image of genius and In 1785, a music critic wrote of Anton Stadler: “One would never have purity which almost became myth. It was the beginnings of the Romantic thought that a clarinet could imitate the human voice to such perfection”. Such view of composers, and artists in general, as set apart from the common comparisons with the human voice were clearly a benchmark of expressive man. It also provided Constanze with a source of income as a widow in quality in both Mozart and Spohr’s time. The idea that instruments could be as possession of the original scores of a great man. expressive as a voice is an interesting one for historically-informed musicians. It reflects active comparisons between music and speaking, so central to Baroque Megan Lang and Classical performance practice, and the gradual evolution towards a more Education Manager singing style (cantabile). This evolution was in tandem with a growing Romantic fascination with instrumental music’s ability to communicate emotion on a level beyond the reach of words. 5 6 wide range of odd looking MY BASSET CLARINET instruments being created A WORD FROM NICOLE VAN BRUGGEN while everyone made their own interpretation of this significant instrument. The basset clarinet is one of my favourite clarinets, partly because it could easily have passed into history and been forgotten, despite being a Then, in the early 90s, wonderfully expressive and beautiful instrument. a musicologist was researching in Riga, Latvia, Its story begins with Mozart the Freemason: it was at this prestigious men’s when she came across club that he became friends with virtuoso clarinettist Anton Stadler and master the iconography pictured clarinet builder Theodor Lotz.